A footballer who led an attack on the referee after a qualifier for China's 11th National Games last weekend was banned for life by the Chinese Football Association (CFA) on Thursday.

In the latest incident to tarnish the reputation of Chinese soccer, Tianjin's Zhao Shitong chased referee He Zhibiao for over 100 metres and pushed him down to ground before being restrained by police at the end of a match against Beijing on Sunday.Zhao was banned for life from any activity related to football, the CFA said in a statement on its website (wwww.fa.org.cn).

Several of his team mates were also handed lengthy bans for their part in the attack on He, who had dismissed three Tianjin players in Beijing's 3-1 victory.Goalkeeper Li Gen and midfielder Hao Tengjiao, who chased the referee off the pitch, were each given three-year bans.

Two other players were banned for 30 months, two for two years, one for 10 matches and one for five matches. An official from Tianjin Teda, the local Chinese Super League club, was also banned for a year.

The incident came at the end of the final round of group matches in an under-20 competition to decide which of China's provinces and autonomous regions would qualify for October's National Games. Tianjin were eliminated.

Thursday, July 30, 2009

Given the magnitude of Japan's recession, it should perhaps come as little surprise that the fantasy-obsessed animation industry has received a hard dose of reality.

Yasuo Yamaguchi, executive director of the Association of Japanese Animators, said the industry has been rocked by the country's deepest recession since World War II.

"The spread of free Internet downloading is having a deadly effect," he said.

Japanese animation is roughly a $2 billion-a-year industry. Revenues peaked in 2006 but have since fallen off, as lower advertising revenues lead to fewer new programs.

Yamaguchi said the animation industry is important to Japan's economy and that the government should be helping it through these tough times with subsidies.

Unlike some big screen animated features from the United States that rely almost completely on computer animation, in Japan, almost all features are drawn by hand -- a labor-intensive craft practiced by thousands of young artists each year.

I disagree with the comment that says piracy is a big problem. I find anime fans to be the most loyal and will go buy alot of things at stores and conventions. They even buy the costumes to dress up at their favourite characters! Sure piracy does happen but not to the extent of tv shows and music.

And if you are pirating anime, think of the poor guy drawing one page at a time in his tiny un-air-conditioned room!

North Korea's first fast-food restaurant selling hamburgers and waffles has opened in the center of Pyongyang. Although there are hamburger joints in North Korea, this is the first full-fledged franchise-style fast-food restaurant there.

The Choson Sinbo, a Pyongyang mouthpiece in Japan, last Saturday reported the fast-food restaurant opened at the Kumsong Intersection in Pyongyang early last month and plans to open a branch in downtown Pyongyang in the near future.

According to the newspaper, the restaurant has an "affiliation with a Singaporean company specializing in waffle joints." The Singaporean company supplies only the facilities, while the local operation hires staff and supplies raw materials.

"Before the restaurant opened, staff were trained on cooking and service techniques by a staffer dispatched from the Singaporean company, but it developed food with new flavors after repeated tasting and sampling," the newspaper wrote.

Food prices were fixed "at an affordable level," it said. A hamburger and bun is 190 North Korean won and a mug of Kumgang draft beer 76 won. The average monthly pay of ordinary North Korean workers is reportedly about 3,000 won. The price of each hamburger is similar to that of 100 g of rice (about 200 won) in North Korea and much cheaper than a piece of illegally imported South Korean choco pie (500 won).

Sounds good. I'd like to try it. If they ever let me into North Korea! The more business in North Korea the better :)

After barely a month of operations amidst great fanfare, Naked News Korea, which follows the concept of the infamous Naked News, a novelty news, sports and entertainment site featuring stripping presenters, is only a few steps away from disappearing in a flash.

Although official confirmation isn't in yet, it's depressing for Naked News Korea staff after it was revealed that the company is suffering from mismanagement issues and intense scrutiny from everyone in Korea. Even worse was to follow as it was said that the 9 presenters for the station haven't been paid yet.

One of the presenters said, "The company hasn't paid me wages for last month and communications has been cut. The newsroom has been shut down and all the broadcasting equipment seems to have been carted away. The five remaining presenters are also preparing to sue the company for unpaid wages if communication is still not forthcoming from the management in the next few days."

Man, is there anything worse than being naked AND not getting paid? Ouch. I could never imagine this happening in such a conservative place like Korea. Didn't even last a month? That's terrible. Even their dramas are conservative. Takes 20 episodes to kiss someone!

Whatever happened to sportsmanship eh? Ref is going to give you a red card if to stomp on a guy! This is some amateur tournament but I've seen the top level Chinese Super League. It's unwatchable. The quality of Chinese football is absolutely horrible.

Japanese activists sounded the alarm Wednesday over a sharp rise in suicides after a police report said the number of people who killed themselves up to June rose 4.7 percent on last year.

Urgent changes are needed to cope with the intensifying social problem, said Yasuyuki Shimizu of non-profit group Life Link.

In the first six months of the year, amid Japan's worst post-war recession, police recorded 17,076 suicides, up 768 or 4.7 percent from the same period last year, according to the National Police Agency.

At the current pace, the figure could reach or possibly surpass Japan's worst annual record of 34,427 suicides, recorded in 2003.

For the past decade, Japan has seen more than 30,000 suicides every year.

The recession has taken its toll on many, especially men, said Yukiko Nishihara, founder of Tokyo Suicide Prevention Centre.

"On our suicide hotlines, we are hearing that people - some of them young men in their 30s - are tired of living and working and being laid off and trying to find jobs again," she said.

"We have to do something to help before people become so desperate."

Shimizu cautioned that people "take their lives for a complicated mix of reasons" and criticised fragmented government prevention programmes.

Japan has one of the world's highest suicide rates, behind only a group of former Soviet bloc countries, according to the World Health Organisation.

Very sad. I would guess most suicides are working men who have lost their jobs or young school girls under pressure from their studies. Japan's always been 'tolerant' of suicides but with this spike, they should perhaps come up with some prevention programs. First step would be to outlaw these internet suicide groups that feel suicide alone is too lonely.

Tuesday, July 28, 2009

While the recession is driving some women in the U.S. into the sex industry, it's pushing Japan's young ladies into the less extreme but nevertheless historically taboo work of hostessing. We aren't talking about simply standing at the front of a restaurant and politely seating customers; the country's hostesses are professional flirts often paid big bucks to party, chat up customers and look pretty in gentlemen's clubs. (And, depending on who you ask, they are sometimes pressured into sex for money.)

Paying anywhere from $100,000 to $300,00o a year, they are "among the most lucrative jobs available to women" in Japan, according to a trend piece in the New York Times. Things weren't so great for women before the economic collapse -- nearly 70 percent in their early 20s held precarious positions with scant benefits -- and now they're in dire straights: "More women from a diversity of backgrounds are looking for hostess work," Kentaro Miura, a club manager in Tokyo, told the Times. The upshot: These gigs are becoming wildly competitive.

No surprise there. What's puzzling, though, is that reporter Hiroko Tabuchi also ties the recession to the fact that hostesses are "gaining respectability and even acclaim." He summarizes the situation dramatically: "Japan’s worst recession since World War II is changing mores." Certainly the recession is pushing some to consider work they wouldn't have otherwise, but it's seems a stretch to link that desperation to hostesses' rising cultural stock.

The part about girls not getting the jobs they want during a recession and having to do something else. For example, I can't find a job as an accountant or in the oil industry so now I have to clean house in a bikini. I get that.

What I don't get is, if Japan is in it's worse recession since WWII, what guy has the money to pay for these thrills like a hostess and maybe more. Are the top echelon guys in Japan still filthy rich while the rest are looking for work? Sad that they spend this foolishly while others can't make money.

NBA star Kobe Bryant is undeniably the super-star judging from the 8,500 strong crowd that cheered for him as soon as he stepped on the court. Find out what he did during the coaching clinic that made the fans go into a frenzy.

The Lawrence police chief called it a moment of "cultural insensitivity." An advocate for refugees called it an ugly example of a far too common problem -- law enforcement's failure to interact effectively with those who have come to America to escape persecution.

What prompted such reactions was a decision by a Lawrence police officer to call an unidentified Asian male Jackie Chan instead of John Doe. That decision was "racially insensitive," Lawrence Police Chief Paul Whitehead acknowledged Monday.

Because Yu Dongyue smelled of alcohol and wouldn't speak to officers, he was arrested on suspicion of public intoxication. Lawrence officer Ralph Bridgeforth filled out a list of Yu Dongyue's property at the jail processing center, noting he had no ID. Usually in such cases, a suspect would be called John Doe, but Bridgeforth entered another name: Jackie Chan. Yu Dongyue was booked under that name as well.

It this really a big deal? Doesn't calling someone Jackie Chan make the search easier since we're looking for an Asian guy? I've called people Jackie Chan before! Have you ever been called Jackie Chan?

A Cartoon produced by students of Guangzhou (Canton) Academy of Art, about how Chinese middle school students suffer from the work load. In our six years of middle school studies, we study Chinese, maths, English, geography, physics, politics, history, chemistry and biology (not including PE, music and other subsidiary subjects), all of which are mandatory. We can not choose what we are interested in. Also, the studies are memory based and test oriented, which means we have to remember tons of theories, concepts, terms in order to pass exams.

Saturday, July 25, 2009

A Japanese businessman was ordered to apologize publicly and pay "spiritual damages" to the tune of 1,000 yuan ($146) to a woman he wrongly accused of stealing his trousers in Wuhan, Hubei province.

The woman, an employee of the Japanese businessman, dragged her boss to court last December after he publicly announced she had stolen his trousers and fined her 50 yuan, which were cut from her wages.

The Donghu Development Zone People's Court ruled in favor of the plaintiff, saying the defendant had hurt her feelings after he perfunctorily circulated the notice of criticism.

Love the "spiritual damages" part! That's like psychological damages in the US right?

Farmers in an eastern Indian state have asked their unmarried daughters to plow parched fields naked in a bid to embarrass the weather gods to bring some badly needed monsoon rain, officials said on Thursday.

Witnesses said the naked girls in Bihar state plowed the fields and chanted ancient hymns after sunset to invoke the gods. They said elderly village women helped the girls drag the plows.

"They (villagers) believe their acts would get the weather gods badly embarrassed, who in turn would ensure bumper crops by sending rains," Upendra Kumar, a village council official, said from Bihar's remote Banke Bazaar town.

"This is the most trusted social custom in the area and the villagers have vowed to continue this practice until it rains very heavily."

India this year suffered its worst start to the vital monsoon rains in eight decades, causing drought in some states.

As long as it embarasses the gods and not the girls, I'm fine with it!

The Japanese have been voted the world's best tourists for being clean, polite, quiet, and uncomplaining, according to a study conducted by Internet-based travel agency Expedia, in which hotels around the world were asked to rank the behavior of foreign tourists.

What has been the focus of attention among media outlets around the world, however, is the news that French tourists have come in last, or 27th place. Hotels cited French tourists' behavior of being "cheap, rude, and unwilling to learn the local language" as reasons for their unpopularity. The neutrality of the study is uncertain, but there is no question that French tourists are not very well liked.

Speaking of popularity, the French in France don't have much, either. TripAdvisor.com, a free online travel guide, ranked Paris as "the most unfriendly city in Europe."

Friday, July 24, 2009

One of three teenaged Chinese exchange students who went missing last week, has been found safe and sound, said Toronto police. But the search continues for the remaining two.

Const. Wendy Drummond said Qian Hu, 15, was found on Friday but would not elaborate further.

Hu, Zhiyong Chen, 17, and Kangjuun Fu, 13, arrived in Toronto on July 7 from Changsha City, in Hunan province, for a four-week English as a Second Language program run by the Toronto District School Board.

Thirty foreign students had registered for the Toronto District School Board summer exchange program.

The teens were last seen Tuesday at about 1:30 p.m. during an excursion to Woodbine Beach. A teacher called police when they did not rejoin the group.

The three speak Mandarin with limited knowledge of English and are unfamiliar with Toronto, Drummond said.

Fu's host home was in North York, and the other two were in Thornhill, she said.

Although police alleged that they had planned to go AWOL, they are still concerned about their safety. There were originally rumours that the trio had planned to apply for refugee status.

"They're 13 and 17-years-old in a foreign country," Drummond said. "We don't know if they have any means of support financially at such a young age. Without any means of support it is a definite concern for us."

Chen is described as Chinese, 5'7", 110 lbs., thin build, with short black hair. He was last seen wearing a white cotton T-shirt.

Fu is described as Chinese, 5'7", 110 lbs., thin build, with short black hair. He was last seen wearing a white cotton T-shirt and blue denim pants.

Interesting. So out of the three students, the girl has been found but the two boys are still missing.

BruceLee.com is now the official website of Bruce Lee and has just launched. Many years ago, the domain name was taken by someone, and it's taken a loooong time for Bruce's family to get it back. But now the site is up and running, created and maintained by the people behind Bruce Lee's estate.

The site includes various bits of media, photos, an official merchandise store, and a blog maintained by Bruce's daughter Shannon Lee. I'm sure more will be added but it's great to have a look around as it gets off the ground!

HRP-4C, a female humanoid robot created by Japan’s National Institute of Advanced Industrial Science and Technology (AIST), made her first professional runway appearance at a fashion show in Osaka today.

In the travel section of the August issue of Gourmet Magazine (page 44) in between articles about the raw mik cheeses from Ragusa Province in Sicily and the food artisans of Vancouver Island, there is a small piece about the sushi at the BP gas station at Ridgeway and Poplar. Apparently, they sell about 300 boxes of fresh sushi each day made by an on-site sushi chef. I knew this gas station had been selling sushi for years but I've never had any or even thought about stopping in to get any.

Thursday, July 23, 2009

Her uniform looks good, with striped scarf and blue cap in perfect order, but railway employee Mitsue Endo has one thing to do before she faces the masses - pass the smile test.

Endo, who works at hectic Shinagawa Station in central Tokyo for Keihin Express Railway Co., sits in front of a laptop computer with a digital camera mounted on top. At first she is a bit grim-faced, and the verdict from the company's smile-rating software is instant and candid.

"Smile: 0" pops up on the screen.

She breaks into a broad grin and the computer responds cheerfully, giving her a score of 70.

The company has installed the system to help employees check their smiles before heading out to face customers. The test is optional, but at major stations like Shinagawa, the 250,000 riders who pass through per day can be rushed and agitated, and a happy face can go a long way.

"Smiling helps our interaction with the passengers. I think the atmosphere becomes more relaxing with a smile," says Endo, whose job includes helping lost customers find their way and dealing with ticketing mishaps.

Keihin uses the software at 15 of its 72 stations, concentrating on the busier locations.

Taichi Takahashi, who works in public relations at the train operator, says it gives employees a chance to examine themselves before they go to work.

"I don't think that we have had much opportunity to stare at our faces that close and for that long to check our facial expressions until now," he said.

Anyone who's been to Japan will confirm. Any girl that's a greeter or hostess there is required to smile and have extremely high-pitched voices!

Nisan didn’t mean to fall in love with Nemutan. Their first encounter — at a comic-book convention that Nisan’s gaming friends dragged him to in Tokyo — was serendipitous. Nisan was wandering aimlessly around the crowded exhibition hall when he suddenly found himself staring into Nemutan’s bright blue eyes. In the beginning, they were just friends. Then, when Nisan got his driver’s license a few months later, he invited Nemutan for a ride around town in his beat-up Toyota. They went to a beach, not far from the home he shares with his parents in a suburb of Tokyo. It was the first of many road trips they would take together. As they got to know each other, they traveled hundreds of miles west — to Kyoto, Osaka and Nara, sleeping in his car or crashing on friends’ couches to save money. They took touristy pictures under cherry trees, frolicked like children on merry-go-rounds and slurped noodles on street corners. Now, after three years together, they are virtually inseparable. “I’ve experienced so many amazing things because of her,” Nisan told me, rubbing Nemutan’s leg warmly. “She has really changed my life.”

Nemutan doesn’t really have a leg. She’s a stuffed pillowcase — a 2-D depiction of a character, Nemu, from an X-rated version of a PC video game called Da Capo, printed on synthetic fabric. In the game, which is less a game than an interactive visual novel about a schoolyard romance, Nemu is the loudmouthed little sister of the main character, whom she calls nisan, or “big brother,” a nickname Nisan adopted as his own when he met Nemu. When I joined the couple for lunch at their favorite all-you-can-eat salad bar in the Tokyo suburb of Hachioji, he insisted on being called only by this new nickname, addressing his body-pillow girlfriend using the suffix “tan” to show how much he adored her. Nemutan is 10, maybe 12 years old and wears a little blue bikini and gold ribbons in her hair. Nisan knows she’s not real, but that hasn’t stopped him from loving her just the same. “Of course she’s my girlfriend,” he said, widening his eyes as if shocked by the question. “I have real feelings for her.”

According to many who study the phenomenon, the rise of 2-D love can be attributed in part to the difficulty many young Japanese have in navigating modern romantic life. According to a government survey, more than a quarter of men and women between the ages of 30 and 34 are virgins; 50 percent of men and women in Japan do not have friends of the opposite sex. One of the biggest best sellers in the country last year was “Health and Physical Education for Over Thirty,” a six-chapter, manga-illustrated guidebook that holds the reader’s hand from the first meeting to sex to marriage.

As discussed before in previous post, Japan has the oldest population in the world. Nearly 50% of it's population is over 60. Why is it that young Japanese have so much trouble navigating romantic life? There's a bazillion Japanese over there, just match up? There must be something fundamentally wrong with a society where men charish a pillow more than a girl. I know the older Japanese generation is upset about Otaku. How does a macho samurai sake-drinking society turn into this?

A declining birthrate is one thing. Alot of Western societies have less kids for various reasons, financial, daycare, women in their careers etccc. But people are still getting married have having a great social life. How can a country have so many single people? Is it the guys who think the girls are needy? It is the girls who think the guys are jerks? Must be something!

POLICE have detained a Malaysian woman who allegedly stabbed her husband in the chest for coming home late after watching a football match between Manchester United and Malaysia, an official said on Tuesday.

The man had promised to come back immediately after the match in Kuala Lumpur on Saturday evening, but his wife was 'very angry' when he returned after midnight, said district police chief Abdul Jalil Hassan.

The woman stabbed him twice in the chest with a kitchen knife and then took him to a hospital, where a doctor reported the incident to police, Abdul Jalil told The Associated Press.

'He was with friends after the match, so that's why he came home late,' Abdul Jalil said.

The man was recovering in the hospital, he said.

Police have not decided whether to charge the woman with any offense.

The English Premier League champions defeated Malaysia 3-2 on Saturday in their opening match on a preseason Asian tour.

Sheesh! If he's just going out the guys, no need to stab him! But this is probably the last drop that overflows the full glass of water. There must have been a history of him coming home late and cheating on her.

OR it could be that people lose their mind over soccer.

As they say: Mass genocide is the most exhausting activity one can engage in, outside of soccer.

Wednesday, July 22, 2009

Nothing else on tv on a slow Wednesday night so I watched the Obama HealthCare press conference. For the first time, he seems flustered and didn't sound good. I've said in the past that if Obama read a long shopping list, it would still sound good. But tonight, he didn't sound convincing.

He really sounded like he has no health care plan. Just a jumble of non-specific goals. Then he went off into talking about the fiscal deficit, that it wasn't his fault and he has reduced it looking forward ten years.

There were a lot of words but all saying very little. A long-winded, poorly organized group of statements. A restating of many of the current problems, a list of things that must be done better, nothing about how to get from here to there except 'this bill must be passed now'.

I didn't like his use of the word "incentivize". What kind of word is that? Doesn't sound good.

I would have liked to hear how this bill would address the major problems or the overarching vision of the plan, more specific than 'fix health care'. I am probably asking too much for a five minute speech and fifty minute press conference. but that seemed to be his objective right? To sell the plan to the people on prime time tv, or frame the public discussion, or something. He seemed floundering tonight saying 'we need this, we need it now', without a clear message of how, why this, or how much. And his 2/3 funding of the plan with increased efficiencies is complete bunk.

The fantasy might be over already. Obama's always sounded good but has never said much. During the campaign he mentioned "Hope and Change" alot. I'm still waiting for a definition of what hope and change are. He's bit off more than he can chew I think. He can't "speech" his way out of this one.

This is the life of a political leader. Popular when elected but with each passnig day, one more person hates you.

Some Chinese universities appear to be faking employment rates among their graduates in an effort to keep their own ratings high in these economic hard times.

On Tuesday, the official China Daily confirmed the Internet buzz that some universities are providing the government with documented "proof" their graduates have found jobs, even though they are still unemployed.

"Due to fierce competition among universities, especially second-tier ones, the performance and reputation of a school largely depends on its employment rate after graduation," an unnamed "education expert" was quoted telling the English-language newspaper.

According to the Chinese language Southern Metropolis Daily, the job scam was revealed on the popular Internet forum Tianya when a "netizen" got a peek at his university records and was astounded to find he had a job.

"I was immediately stunned. Heavens! I have obtained employment. The agreement documented stated the name of my employer in black and white, next to a big red stamp of that employer," he wrote.

Chinese lying? Noooo. Say it ain't so. Universities obviously want to show they have a good employment rate to prove they program delivers results!

Tuesday, July 21, 2009

The world's population may be growing fast and the number of pensioners increasing faster than ever. But the irony of the greying population is not that the world is filling up with people, but rather that huge belts of it are becoming depopulated.

At first sight, Kiyosato doesn't look like a place fighting for its survival. Amid the vast fields of potatoes, sweetcorn and beetroot stand rows of pristine houses and a community centre.

But, apart from the distant hum of a tractor, the town is silent and the streets are almost empty. Kiyosato is living on borrowed time. And so, according to the government, are more than 60,000 Japanese towns, at risk of death through depopulation as a result of a twin attack from a declining birthrate and a surging life expectancy – currently 86.05 years for women and 79.29 for men.

Japan has one of the world's biggest proportions of over-65s – 22.5% of its 127 million people – and one of the smallest of under-15s, at 13%. More than two in five people living in rural communities are over 65, and the elderly make up more than half of the population of an estimated 8,000 towns and villages. Demographers expect the current population of 127 million to fall to 100 million over the next 50 years.

About 200 communities have vanished in the past decade. The threat of extinction looms largest in Hokkaido, where almost 10% of towns are at risk, with half of those expected to disappear over the next decade.

Monday, July 20, 2009

Once again, we made it out to the Tokyo Toy Show for its 2009 incarnation (see our coverage of 2007 and 2008) and weren’t disappointed. A bit different than what we expected, but economics and other factors are changing the market a bit perhaps. Some old favorites, some new surprises, but still a fun toy show with lots to see.

What’s clear is that there’s still a huge production trend of toys that are used for cooking real food. We used to call those “appliances” back in the day, but if you make them pink, small, and plastic enough they pass as toys apparently.

For nearly 30 years, two traffic signals at a T-junction in Aizu-Wakamatsu, Fukushima Prefecture, simultaneously turned green for about seven seconds at a time, it has been learned.

An accident at the junction in June brought the issue to the attention of the Fukushima prefectural police.

The malfunction was caused by a programming error--a mistake that had never been rectified.

The police have apologized to the drivers involved in the accident and have removed one of the offending signals.

The T-junction is located 1.5 kilometers northeast of JR Aizu-Wakamatsu Station, where a prefectural road meets National Route 49.

One signal was for cars exiting a car dealership on the north side of the junction. The other is a signal with an arrow that lights up to indicate that cars traveling from the east on Route 49 may turn left onto the prefectural road.

On June 19, a car traveling from the east on Route 49 turned left onto the southbound prefectural road and hit a vehicle exiting the car dealership.

Both drivers reportedly told the police the traffic lights were green, which prompted the police to launch an investigation.

How's it possible that nobody noticed before? SEVEN SECONDS? That's a long time. Imagine you are at a red light. The light turns green and now count 7 seconds! In Calgary if you don't move in ONE second someone behind you will honk!

I think everyone in town must have known about it and it was their special traffic light. I would guess that two idiots from out of town decided to run into each other and ruin a 30 year secret! :)

A 14-YEAR-OLD boy drank gasoline for five years to obtain "energy" - just as his idols "Bumble Bee" or "Optimus Prime" do in "Transformers," the Sichuan-based West China Metropolis Daily reported yesterday.

After the boy, in Yibin City, southwest Sichuan Province, had watched the animated TV series, he began to drink gasoline to become a "valiant fighter" like "Optimus Prime," his father told the newspaper.

"He began to drink gasoline five years ago, when we found he liked smelling lighter fuel," he said.

The boy's mother owned a grocery stall, selling small goods such as lighters.

In 2004, she often found lighters missing two or three days after she'd bought them. She later found that her son had been stealing them.

The parents talked to their son and asked him not to do it again. "But afterwards we found our motorcycle's gasoline was always disappearing, and one day when we found the boy had drunk a half bottle of gasoline stolen from the motorcycle, we were too shocked to say anything," the father said.

FIVE years ago? Too shocked to say anything? You're parents! If my boy ever drink gasoline he'll get a quick boot up his ass!

Sunday, July 19, 2009

KidZania in Nishinomiya (near Kobe, about an hour and a half drive south from Kyoto). is best described as “Vocational School meets Disneyland”... it's a place where kids get to pretend to be all kinds of things.

KidZania is a two-story indoor area filled with more than 70 different “businesses” where the kids can participate as an employee or customer. They can move from business to business, with each event taking from 15 to 30 minutes, although, like Disneyland, much time is spent waiting your turn.

If they participate as an employee, they're paid (in KidZo monetary units), and if they participate as a customer, they must pay. The terms for each “business” are displayed out front... how much pay they'll get for participating, or how much it'll cost to participate.

Auto Repair: Three mechanics standing around. Just like the real thing!

I think that's really cool! Kids here in Canada know nothing about what their parents do and can never act out their dreams of being a fireman or an astronaut. Sure there's Take Your Kid To Work Day, which is an absolute nuisance. That's pretty much a day adults get no work done. Is there Career Day at school still? That's a load of BS too. Kids bring their parents to tell the class what they do. Unless the job is interesting like making ice cream, nobody gives a shit. It would be really cool if we had this here! Kids meeting each other and working together for a day? Builds teamwork!

So where's the "oppai" gravure model exhibit? These kids could learn a thing or two about Japan's greatest growing industry :)

Rice paddy art also called as rice field art has become very famous in all across the Japan. The largest and finest work is grown in the Aomori prefecture village of Inakadate, which has earned a reputation for its agricultural artistry. Farmers create the murals by planting different colors of rice plant

That's amazing! How can they calculate that. When I watch baseball games and see the grass designed to fit a teams logo it looks great already. This is 100 times that much.

Former race girl Jung Eun Joo now singer released a digital single called Nudity recently and her cheap looking, somewhat bordering on soft porn music video for her song, Hot Hot has irked many netizens in Korea.

Jung Eun Joo debuted as a race girl in 2006 and also released a pictorial book in the same year. Since then, she had stopped all forms of activities for the past 3 years before resuming her entertainment career in June and releasing her first mini-album on 16th July.

But with Nudity being the mini-album title and her trot title song being called Hot Hot, it doesn't help but make one think that she is using sex to sell the mini-album. In addition, the short music video for Hot Hot has raised lots of eyebrows for it's suggestive content and making people feel like they are watching a soft porn video instead.

Wow. Could anything be worse in this video? Terrible song, girl can't sing and in conservative Korea, she's showing off everything. As a girl I think it's incredibly cheap! Looks like the music video production cost about $5. And this chick wants to go mainstream?

Friday, July 17, 2009

I'm looking for a hot asian female to pose next to my smoking Black Dodge Charger. I love this car & I Love Asian women, so why not combine the two in a commemorative photo? Please wear something sexy (up to your discretion) and be ready for a lovely summertime photo-shoot. You can keep digital copies of the photos for you portfolio, show off how good you look, show your grandchildren... Don't let your beauty fade without some type of historical proof! ;^)

Thank you.

* it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other commercial interests * Compensation: 100 Dollars cash bucks

Come on. That's ridiculous. $100? It might cost the girl $100 just to get there and back. Teenage girls might go for it? I don't know.. that's just not enough. Not even enough to buy a dress.

The police in Koriyama, Fukushima Prefecture will launch a campaign to encourage drivers of hybrid cars to turn on their lights during the day to prevent accidents caused by the quiet engines of such cars, among other reasons.

Starting this month, Koriyama Police Station's patrol cars have been driving with their lights turned on during the daytime. The police were set Wednesday to attend a citizens event aimed at eradicating accidents and call on hybrid car owners to drive with their lights on.

Sales of hybrid cars are rising due to a tax reduction for eco-friendly vehicles. However, it has been pointed out the silent engines used in the hybrid cars--a combination of an electric motor and a gasoline engine--could pose a danger to visually disabled and elderly people who are less likely to notice the approach of a quiet hybrid car.

The Construction and Transport Ministry on July 2 held a committee meeting to discuss accident prevention measures. At the meeting, there were more than 60 reports on potentially dangerous minor accidents.

Toyota Motor Corp., which manufactures the Prius hybrid car, is studying ways of alerting pedestrians about the approach of quiet cars, including through the use of warning beeps.

"Car visibility will be enhanced if vehicle lights are turned on during the daytime," an officer of Koriyama Police Station said. "As the car engines are quiet, this step also will be useful for other cars."

So all the meetings and planning that went into inventing a car, nobody thought about a car bring loud? A car needs to sound like a car so people know it's a car!

Imagine walking on the sidewalk and not being able to hear a car approach you! I'd be scared out of my wits every 2 seconds.

According to a police news release, the three are "visiting Toronto as part of a four-week exchange program."

The students are from Hunan, China, speak Mandarin, and have limited knowledge of English.

According to police, the students left their group intentionally.

Police are trying to determine if the three took off on a lark, or if they intend to defect.

People still defect? If true, this would be a strange defection. Students in China who are involved in exchange programs either come from really rich families or part of the government structure or both. They are representing China on these trips and have alot of pride bring from China.

Something smells fishy about this cause if they are defecting they need to defect to something or someone. Plans need to be made in advance and they must flee to a relative or an organization.

Women and their portrayal in anime has been a hot topic on the mind of Deanna Jackson, a Ph.D. student in experimental psychology, who is currently teaching social psychology. She is currently researching gender identity in adults. As a feminist and an anime fan for over 13 years, I interviewed her to see what she thought about the anime of today and older anime, and how images of women in shows differed and their impact on society.

Examiner: What got you interested in Women and Anime?D.J.: Really, it all started because of CLAMP. I was thinking about whether I thought their shows were more shoujo or shounen, and when I realized…they're shoujo, I started questioning why I didn't think they were for Girls. Especially X. Such a: "you'd think this would be a dude show" amount of violence and serious themes. It's only gotten worse as I've seen more and more anime and learned more and more about gender.

Examiner: How do you feel women are portrayed in Anime?D.J.: Now that's a tough question. In general, I would say women are usually limited in how they're portrayed. I would say there are a variety of portrayals out there, but usually are very archetypal. Mostly, this is probably just because anime is usually targeting a male audience. Each different type of anime has its own stereotypical female characters, or lack thereof, and it depends on a lot of what market the anime is geared towards as to what portrayals it uses. Wouldn't say they portrayed negatively or positively, overall. I would say that they are often objectified.

Examiner: Is Anime a realistic look at how the creators see women in real life in your opinion?D.J.: I seriously, seriously doubt it. It's a form of entertainment that needs viewers to make money. Marketability drives a lot of what gets portrayed, and the writers themselves are thinking about a story. And I doubt anyone's fantasy life is an accurate reflection of how they see the world they live in. for example, the objectification often happens because sex sells. A good story, now with ass shots and panties and fan service!

Chinese developers are commemorating the late Michael Jackson by building a scaled-down replica of his Neverland Ranch on an island off Shanghai, a state-run newspaper said on Friday.

Investors in the project, which will cost about 100 million yuan ($15 million) to build, hope it will open on Chongming island ahead of next year's Expo in Shanghai, the China Daily newspaper reported.

While they are not as popular as the Taiwanese and Hong Kong stars who dominate the music scene in China, Western artists are making inroads in the local market, thanks to young fans.

"By building a Neverland here in China, we want to pay tribute to him and at the same time offer the Chinese people an outlet for expressing their love toward him," the report quoted Qiu Xuefan, one of the investors, as saying.

Jackson, who died on June 25 in Los Angeles, abandoned Neverland -- once filled with theme-park rides and even a zoo -- after his child molestation trial in 2005.

China has way too much on its hands. This is doomed to fail. How much can you charge a local Chinese person to visit the place before it gets boring and will tourists really want to visit this place when they can visit the real Neverland? The real Neverland won't be abandoned, they'll probably turn it into a similar Graceland.

Tuesday, July 14, 2009

NBA All-Star centre Shaquille O'Neal has said he hopes to bring his martial arts skills to the basketball court, during a visit to China's Shaolin Temple -- the birthplace of kung fu.

"When I was a kid, I saw a lot of Shaolin kung fu performances," O'Neal told Titan Sports, China's top sports newspaper, as he toured the temple in central Henan province on Monday.

"I always wanted to know if Shaolin kung fu was real or not. Now, at last I know -- the Chinese kung fu I saw on television, it was all real," the four-time NBA champion said in remarks translated into Chinese.

"When I go home I will study this and hopefully even use it when I'm playing basketball."

O'Neal -- who earlier this month signed a contract to play with LeBron James and the Cleveland Cavaliers -- has visited China numerous times and signed several endorsement deals here.

Known to the Chinese as the "Big Shark," the 37-year-old O'Neal has practised martial arts in the off-season for years.

On Monday, he met with the temple's top monks and watched a group of warrior monks performing martial arts exercises.

"When I retire, I hope to come back to the Shaolin Temple to study for a year. To come here just this one time is not enough."

State television showed crowds surrounding O'Neal, as he mimicked the hand movements that give snake-style kung fu its name.

When asked if he would be comfortable playing in Cleveland where the weather is colder than anywhere else he has played during his 17-year NBA career, the centre answered: "I think I can adjust to any kind of weather.

"In China you call me the big shark -- now you can call me the polar bear. I will be like a polar bear when it comes to fighting the cold."

If you hear yelling like Bruce Lee on an NBA court, you'll know why :)

If you've ever gone to a baseball game and sat down the foul lines you'll know how fast line drives can come at you. This was a bit higher up the stands so there was time to dodge. The girl was the dodging and the guy was too, but he had his pizza box ready hehe.

Monday, July 13, 2009

Etsu Japan has partnered with CARNELIAN Senseiand TONY Sensei to create these magnificent hand-painted keyboards. The artwork displays the manga masters' keen eye and vivid imagination to best advantage but you may wonder... why use a computer keyboard for a canvas?

The only answer I can think of is that your average anime otaku geek would do just about anything to get his hands on one of the cute cuties depicted... and for just 10,000 yen (about $105) each, they can!

My number one reason for visiting the country was to ride on a wheelchair accessible escalator. I don't mean some special 'crip only' contraption, nor being tipped back and balanced precariously on the steps of a normal one, but instead the kind of escalator where wheelchair users can travel alongside everyone else. I don't recall where I first heard about their existence; maybe these magical moving marvels were the stuff of imagination or perhaps an accessible urban myth I'd once heard? I decided to visit Japan to find out the truth.

On arrival, what I actually discovered was that Japan is without question one of the most crip-friendly countries that I've ever visited. Every pavement had a slope for wheelies and raised markings to assist blind people. I saw disabled people of all ages and impairments going about their everyday lives. People even stared less at me in Japan than they do in the UK.

This surprises me quite alot. In my experiences, I found Asians to be quite intolerent about someone having a pimple let alone a disability. My dad mocks handicapped people all the time. It's pretty sad :(

Sunday, July 12, 2009

Eun-Hee Ji found surprising calm in a double-bogey and a dramatic victory with an improbable birdie.

The 23-year-old from South Korea made a lengthy birdie putt on the 72nd hole to emerge from a Sunday scramble with an even-par 71 and claim the U.S. Women's Open.

She outlasted playing partner and third-round leader Cristie Kerr, who struggled from the outset in the final round and failed in her bid for a second Women's Open title in three years.

"I didn't even dream about winning this tournament, but, well, I did it, and I think this is going to be one of the most memorable moments in my life," Ji said through an interpreter.

U.S. Women's Open Leaderboard

1. Ji (E)2. Kung (+1)T-3. Kim (+2)T-3. Kerr (+2)5. Lincicome (+3)

Ji recovered from two bogeys in her first four holes and a double-bogey at the 10th, making three birdies over the final six holes to finish at even-par 284 at Saucon Valley Country Club

I watched most of it. I had money on Kim In Kyung but she screwed up the last couple of holes. The NBC coverage was shamefully pro-American and pro-Kerr. Even when she was playing like crap they were cheerleading her on... oh she can do it. "She can win if she birdies the last two holes!" Sorry, if you're playing like shit and losing your temper on course, you're not going to birdie any holes let alone the last two in a US OPEN.

Some athletes borrow to fund their training, others depend on supportive family.

Logan Campbell, a New Zealand tae kwon do champion has chosen a more unorthodox way of funding his bid for the 2012 London Olympics. He has opened a brothel in Auckland, the largest city in New Zealand.

The 23-year-old, who finished in the top 16 in the tae kwon do featherweight division at the Beijing Olympics, turned pimp after funding dried up and he feared he was in danger of missing the games in 2012, he told the New Zealand newspaper the Sunday Star Times.

The Beijing campaign cost about $NZ150,000, most of which came from his parents. His father, Max, an auctioneer, worked two jobs to get him to Beijing and Mr Campbell said that he was tired of being a burden on his parents.

His hopes that his new venture will earn him the $NZ300,000 he needs to be a serious medal contender in London after being beaten in Beijing by the eventual bronze medallist Sung Yu-Chi of Taiwanto.

Mr Campbell, who has taken time off from training to run his high-class gentleman's club, insists that he is not really a pimp.

"When people think of a pimp they think of a guy standing around on a street corner with gold chains. Pimps are more tough-type guys. I'm an owner of an escort agency," he told the newspaper.

He added that he and his business partner Hugo Phillips, 20, employed only "smart, attractive" girls. "We don't treat them like pieces of meat," he said.

That's actually pretty cool. I don't have any problem with the sex/brothel part of this story since prostitution is legal in New Zealand and opening a brothel would be no different then opening a restaurant.

My problem with this story is the Olympics. $150,000NZ for a trip to the Olympics? That's insane. Whatever happened to the Olympic ideal and athletes from everywhere coming together for the Games. For athletes from countries poorer than NZ, their government must be paying for them.

The Olympics just aren't good anymore. Too commercialized and too expensive. These poor athletes have to spend their whole life saving just so the host city can build a kickass stadium that only gets used for 2 weeks?

It's quite a sacrifice to spend $150000 for a single taekwondo tournament. How long is a taekwondo match? 3 minutes? Can you imagine being a poor 100m runner. One heat, 10 seconds and you're done. If I went to the Olympics I'd play in a team sport. Like field hockey so I can play alot of games and make my trip worthwhile :)

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About Me

All of us who are Asian that live outside of Asia lose a bit of ourselves day by day. We try and try to hold on to our culture but bit by bit through events that we can or cannot control we adapt to a new way of life and become a degenerate Asian.

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